Geography lessons

Well we've been here for nearly three weeks now (I can't believe it's been that long - that means I go back to Portland in less than a month!) and I think it is due time for a quick geography lesson on our new country. Here's a map to get your brain flowing:

You see, before we moved here, I would tell people both that "we're moving to Holland" and "we're moving to the Netherlands," using the two names as synonyms. Well, both statements were actually true - we are living in Holland and the Netherlands, although Brian and I recently learned that they do not mean the same thing. In fact, Holland is just a region in the Netherlands, actually broken up into two parts, Noord-Holland (North Holland) and Zuid-Holland (South Holland). Here's a map so you get a better idea of what I'm talking about:

Amsterdam is located in North Holland, while Rotterdam, the second largest city in the Netherlands, and the Hague (the third largest city and the location of the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice) are located in South Holland. Apparently these two regions used to be just one but was broken up into two in the 19th century because the rest of the Netherlands felt the one region had too much power.

I've also heard that other Netherlanders are still jealous of the two Hollands - because of the name confusion and the fact that when most of the world thinks of this little country, they think of Amsterdam and the other two biggest cities, not of the rest of the country. I guess they feel threatened by the power and international identity of these two provinces, and they probably should because virtually everything that goes on in the Netherlands goes on in its three biggest cities.

I hope you learned something!

Cheers,

Krista